Christ the fountain of lifeChrist the fountaine of life

But now when the Holy Ghost saith, we know this, it goes far; for confidence and faith springs from the testimony of him that speaks, or from the nature of him upon whom we trust; but knowledge doth not so much spring from the testimony of any, either God, or man, but is commonly gathered from sense and experience, and experience is both a ground of confidence, and knowledge; and hence comes the knowledge of all Arts and Sciences, whence is their knowledge, but from their observation of many experiences? Physicians know it, and they therefore set it down in their books, they know it is so. Things that we gather from sense and experience, we are said to have the knowledge of; now this experience doth not only give us confidence but knowledge, for by the unction that we have received, we do know the love of God that passeth knowledge, Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith, we come to ⟨p. 237⟩know the love of God towards us, Eph. 3.17.19. There is not any thing that concerns the love of God towards us, but the Spirit of God dwelling in our hearts by faith, it comes to pass that we are able to comprehend the height, and depth, length, and breadth of the love of God towards us. This Spirit of God in our hearts gives us sensible experience and knowledge of Gods love to us, of his atonement and grace to us, our Consciences that had hells in them before, all such darksome evils are now vanished and scattered, and we know that sensibly we had power given us to pray, and to believe that our prayers are granted; and can wait upon God, and fear God, and make conscience of obeying his will. Now this Spirit of prayer that discovers these things plainly to our inward man, the sense and experience of it makes a Christian able to know what God hath done for him, and makes him able to believe what God hath promised him; and thus now when we ask any thing according to Gods will, he doth not only say, It is well said, but he takes a course to answer our requests, we have certain grounds to move us in what we ask, and the ends of our requests are right. Now God considers not always so much the letter of our prayers as the grounds, and ends of them, the scope we aim at, and God will so accordingly answer us.

But now when the Holy Ghost saith, we know this, it goes farre; for confidence and faith springs from the testimony of him that speakes, or from the nature of him upon whom we trust; but knowledge doth not so much spring from the testimony of any, either God, or man, but is commonly gathered from sence and experience, and experience is both a ground of confidence, and knowledge; and hence comes the knowledge of all Arts and Sciences, whence is their knowledge, but from their observation of many experiences? Phisitians know it, and they therefore set it downe in their bookes, they know it is so. Things that we gather from sence and experience, we are said to have the knowledge of; now this experience doth not only give us confidence but knowledge, for by the unction that we have received, we doe know the love of God that passeth knowledge, Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith, we come to